A Long-Dead German Lt Col Jim Storr PhD
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
HMS President?
• 5 ships of that name • 3rd, French
Président, taken 1806
• 4th, USS President, taken 1 June 1813
Chesapeake vs Shannon
• Massachusetts Bay • 11 minutes • More casualties on
Chesapeake than on Victory at Trafalgar – (Casualties almost
exactly 2:1) Drama!
Introduction
• Aim – Rigour
• Terminology – Strategy or Strategic – Operational, Theatre or Campaign – Tactics or Tactical
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking
Clausewitz
• 1780-1831 • Language • Hegelian Dialectic • Differences in
Interpretation • Use as authority • ‘..in which other
discipline so vital to man’s existence do we grant almost divine reverence to one long-dead German?’
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking
Philosophy: • Poorly-defined
Phenomena • Prevalence of
Paradox • Paradigm • Paper thin • (& more Pamphlets
than we know what to do with)
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking Buy my book!
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking
War is:
Combat, and to that extent conflict:
• Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally Human
Military Thought
• Clausewitz • Observations
– ‘P’ words
• War is: • Aside: Naval and Air
Force Thinking
• Naval: Far fewer, far more complex platforms in a highly complex physical environment
• Air Power: – An end in itself? – Riddled with
unsupportable assertion
– Defensive self-justification
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
Trafalgar
• 27 ships vs 33 • RN took 17 ships for no loss • Casualties:
– British 449 dead; French and Spanish about 8 times as many
– HMS Colossus: fought 3 ships; highest casualties of any British ship; but still inflicted 3 ½ times her own losses
– HMS Royal Sovereign: fought 8 ships; of which Santa Ana alone suffered double her losses
• All over in 4 hours and 40 minutes • Outcome:
Trafalgar
Outcome: • Britain defeated the two
next most powerful navies in the world
• France could not invade Britain
• Spain would never again control her colonies in Latin America
• No fleet sailed against the Royal Navy for over 100 years
Spanish
Why?
• Training • Selection • Seamanship • Teamwork
– Gunnery – Working sails – Tactics
• Health • Not just one admiral
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
The Analogy (1)
War is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
Business is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
The Analogy (2)
• Which bit of business are we discussing? – Commerce or trade? – Manufacturing? – The service sector? – Financial trading?
• In war, the exchange is violence. • In business, it is money • The details are fundamentally different;
therefore the analogy is not exact
The Analogy: The Service Sector?
War is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
Business is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
The Analogy: Financial Trading?
War is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • Lethal • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
Business is: • Adversarial • Highly Dynamic • Complex • ~ ‘Lethal’ • Uncertain • Evolutionary • Fundamentally
Human
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
The Human Element
• Collingwood • Personnel selection;
training; pay; terms and conditions
• Investment decisions; design; planning; marketing; sales; productivity;
• ‘The moral is to the physical as three is to one’ (Napoleon)
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
Command, Leadership & Management
• Terminology • Differentiate: • ‘Initiative’
– Doctrine: important; or absent? – Why important?
• Mission Command
Mission Command (1)
• Decentralised style appropriate to situations which are complex, dynamic and adversarial
• Principles: – Unity of Effort – Trust – Freedom of Action – Mutual Understanding
Mission Command (2)
• ‘Mission Command is A Good Thing’ – Or is it?
• Is this appropriate? – The shop floor: Quality Circles – The Law of Unintended Consequences
Three Axes;
Eight Command Styles
(after Stephen Bungay and Martin Samuels) Axis:
Either: Or:
Knowledge Superior knows more
Superior knows less
Alignment Subordinates should use initiative
Subordinates should act as instructed
Effects Superiors will intervene
Superiors will not intervene
Three Axes;
Eight Command Styles
(after Stephen Bungay and Martin Samuels) Axis:
Either: Or:
Knowledge Superior knows more
Superior knows less
Alignment Subordinates should use initiative
Subordinates should act as instructed
Effects Superiors will intervene
Superiors will not intervene
Three Axes;
Eight Command Styles
(after Stephen Bungay and Martin Samuels) Axis:
Either: Or:
Knowledge Superior knows more
Superior knows less
Alignment Subordinates should use initiative
Subordinates should act as instructed
Effects Superiors will intervene
Superiors will not intervene
Three Axes;
Eight Command Styles
(after Stephen Bungay and Martin Samuels) Axis:
Either: Or:
Knowledge Superior knows more
Superior knows less
Alignment Subordinates should use initiative
Subordinates should act as instructed
Effects Superiors will intervene
Superiors will not intervene
The Axes:
(on the following slides, the axes are exploded in order to generate the faces of a cube in 3D)
1. Knowledge
2. Alignment 3. Effects
1. Knowledge
2. Alignment
3. Effects
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Mission Command
Issues (1)
• Knowledge: – Hubris – Render unto Caesar
• Alignment: – Initiative is (generally) empowering
• Effects: – Intervention is (generally) a strong demotivator
• So something like Mission Command is a Good Thing
Issues (2)
• However: – The devil is in the detail – Remember the Law of Unintended
Consequences – Tolerance of well-intentioned mistake?
• Learning (from experience) is a second- or third-order effect
• Reinforces trust • Mistake as threat or opportunity?
Contents
• Introduction • Military Thought • Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 • The Analogy • The Human Element • Command, Leadership and Management • Summary and Conclusions
Summary & Conclusions
• Clausewitz • Relevance: Analogy • The analogy is not exact • Managing complex, adaptive, socio-
technical systems – Be rigorous – Get to the human behaviour beneath the Snake
Oil – Look after your people
Questions?
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